WEBVTT 00:30.000 --> 00:51.480 Hello, my name's Leanne Burgess. I'm a self-taught bra maker and I make bras for women who can't 00:51.480 --> 00:59.400 buy bras to fit them. Bras that might vary from a triple A in the cup size to a H or 00:59.400 --> 01:07.360 an I cup size. I've written this book, Making Beautiful Bras, and now I'm producing this 01:07.360 --> 01:13.720 video with the aim of helping Australian women sew their own bras and sew them very successfully. 01:13.720 --> 01:20.920 I want ladies to be able to sew beautiful bras that not only look exquisite but that 01:20.920 --> 01:27.880 fit beautifully and support them wonderfully. Bra making is the ultimate challenge for the 01:27.880 --> 01:34.120 home sewer. It's not a field of sewing that I would recommend for a beginner sewer, but 01:34.120 --> 01:40.560 any proficient and motivated sewer can sew their own bras and sew them successfully. 01:40.560 --> 01:49.440 For far too long Australian women have assumed that making their own bras was an impossibility 01:49.440 --> 01:56.200 and we've paid large amounts of money for our bras, little realising that we can sew them 01:56.200 --> 02:03.000 ourselves from fabrics and materials costing about a quarter of a bra's retail price. My 02:03.000 --> 02:09.640 book and this video are investments. They're investments for our future because once we 02:09.640 --> 02:15.160 sew our own bras and sew them successfully, we'll then be sewing bras for our family and 02:15.160 --> 02:21.160 our friends and we'll be able to pass these valuable bra making skills on to our daughters. 02:21.160 --> 02:29.640 A homemade bra can be individually designed and tailor made to suit our particular body 02:29.640 --> 02:36.040 shape. We can sew bras for ourselves that last longer than manufactured bras and that 02:36.040 --> 02:43.800 are just as supportive and attractive. Here are some bras that I've made for three ladies 02:43.800 --> 02:53.960 sized 16EE, 12D and 14D. I have selected these models to show that bras for larger busted 02:53.960 --> 03:01.480 ladies can be just as attractive and flattering as smaller cupped bras. My sincere thanks 03:01.480 --> 03:07.960 to Lyncraft for supplying me with many of the stunning laces and fabrics in these bra sets. 03:07.960 --> 03:13.880 I'm sure you'll agree that these bra sets are very pretty but a successful bra not only 03:13.880 --> 03:20.280 has to look beautiful, it has to be a perfect fit or a very good fit at the very least. 03:21.240 --> 03:28.680 And we all want our bras to fit well. But what does that mean? Let's examine exactly 03:28.680 --> 03:36.280 what we're looking for in a bra. Firstly, the cups should have a pleasing or a flattering shape. 03:36.280 --> 03:43.320 They should complement or enhance the natural shape of our breasts. Our breast shape by the way 03:43.320 --> 03:51.720 is as individual as our fingerprints. Secondly, the bra should produce a good breast uplift 03:51.720 --> 03:58.200 and hold the breasts in that uplifted position fairly firmly. This is what is meant by a bra 03:58.200 --> 04:06.600 being supportive. The breasts shouldn't be drooping in the bra at all. There should be adequate 04:06.600 --> 04:13.160 breast separation. Not so much separation that the breasts are pushed way out under the arms 04:13.800 --> 04:20.360 but not too little separation so that there's skin against skin down the cleavage. And this 04:20.360 --> 04:26.200 is a common problem faced by many large busted ladies who wear non-underwired bras. 04:26.200 --> 04:32.040 These ladies often get heat rushes in between their breasts because their bra pushes their breasts 04:32.040 --> 04:39.880 together. The cups should be full enough to contain the breasts. This is an extremely important point 04:39.880 --> 04:47.080 because I'm finding that many women are wearing bras that are far too small in the cups. The 04:47.080 --> 04:54.120 breasts should be able to go right down and out into the cup. There are a few telltale signs 04:54.120 --> 05:03.480 that the cup is too small. The breast bulges over the neckline or the armhole edge and there will 05:03.480 --> 05:11.400 be skin against skin up under the breast. If the cup is too shallow the breast will be compressed 05:11.400 --> 05:19.080 downwards against the chest creating a hot moist airless area which is a common site for heat 05:19.080 --> 05:27.080 rashes, scalding and fungal infections. The shallow-cut minimiser bras often produce this 05:27.080 --> 05:33.480 skin against skin problem and many larger breasted women suffer cruelly in our Australian summer. 05:34.360 --> 05:42.040 A lovely friend of mine who wears bras about, they'd be 14g bras, said she spent last summer 05:42.760 --> 05:47.720 getting her husband's folded up handkerchiefs and tucking them up underneath her bra. 05:47.720 --> 05:53.240 As she said the skin underneath there was just like raw meat and it was bleeding. 05:53.960 --> 05:59.000 When she ran out of her husband's handkerchief she'd go and raid her children's handkerchief 05:59.000 --> 06:06.200 drawers. The straps of a bra shouldn't fall off the shoulders. Ladies with sloped or round 06:06.200 --> 06:12.680 shoulders are forever pulling their bra straps up only to have them fall off again a moment later. 06:12.680 --> 06:18.680 Some give up and actually let them stay there wearing their bra around with the straps around 06:18.680 --> 06:26.680 their upper arm. Very uncomfortable. But this whole problem can be overcome to a large degree 06:26.680 --> 06:33.560 by reshaping the top of the cup so that the straps are attached to the cup a little closer 06:34.120 --> 06:39.160 to the centre front and the centre back line of the body, the middle of the body. 06:39.160 --> 06:45.880 Reshaping the bra back so that the straps are attached very close to the midline of the body 06:45.880 --> 06:53.560 will ensure that the straps stay put. The backs of many sports bras are designed this way 06:54.120 --> 07:01.800 so we can add this practicality to our own very beautiful bras. The shoulder straps should be made 07:01.800 --> 07:09.240 of wider, good quality, strap elastic that will hold the breasts firmly without being tight and 07:09.240 --> 07:15.720 digging a ditch into the top of the shoulders. These ditches can be so bad that they can cause 07:15.720 --> 07:23.960 medical problems, neck aches, headaches and nerve compression causing shooting pains down the arms 07:23.960 --> 07:30.120 and numbness and tingling in the fingers. The straps should be made of a wide, good quality 07:30.120 --> 07:43.800 strap elastic that will prevent these problems occurring in the first place. In this case, 07:43.800 --> 07:49.800 prevention is definitely better than cure. Because once these shoulder ditches have been dug, 07:50.440 --> 07:58.280 they can't be magically filled in. The bra back shouldn't ride up. If the bra is too loose around 07:58.280 --> 08:05.000 the ribcage, this annoying problem can occur. By mid-morning, the hooks and eyes have worked 08:05.000 --> 08:11.880 themselves halfway up our back and at that stage the bra is wearing us. We're not wearing it. 08:12.840 --> 08:17.480 Another cause of this problem is the shape of our ribcage and torso. 08:18.840 --> 08:25.720 Ladies who have hourglass type figures never suffer with this problem because their ribcages 08:25.720 --> 08:33.000 get larger as they go up and their bras don't ride up simply because they can't. But for those 08:33.000 --> 08:39.560 ladies who have narrow shoulders and fairly up and down types of ribcages, they suffer with this 08:39.560 --> 08:46.600 problem a lot. The solution is to angle the back of the bra downwards towards the centre back 08:46.600 --> 08:54.040 so that its position is a lot closer to the waist. Angling the back down like this will 08:54.040 --> 09:01.400 utilise what little tapering there is in the ribcage to stop the back riding up. Making the bra 09:01.400 --> 09:08.280 back a very firm, substantial shape with a deeper bank of hooks and eyes will also help a lot. 09:09.320 --> 09:15.240 In underwired bras, the underwire should sit where the breast meets the ribcage 09:15.960 --> 09:22.680 in the wireline crease. The centre uprights should sit flat against the chest 09:22.680 --> 09:29.480 instead of sticking out. And if they do stick out, this can also indicate that the cut is too shallow. 09:31.240 --> 09:38.920 The underarm uprights shouldn't press into breast tissue. They shouldn't rub against the inside of 09:38.920 --> 09:46.200 the upper arm and they shouldn't be so high that they skewer the arm kit. How do you begin to make 09:46.200 --> 09:55.320 a bra? Firstly, you need a pattern and there's two options. You can buy a commercially available bra 09:55.320 --> 10:03.800 pattern or you can draft your own using my method. Drafting your own bra pattern sounds like a very 10:03.800 --> 10:11.800 daunting task to undertake, but as I'll demonstrate shortly, it's not that hard to do once you know how. 10:11.800 --> 10:17.960 Drafting your own bra pattern is often far more successful than using a commercial pattern 10:18.600 --> 10:24.680 because with a commercial pattern, it might be the right size that you make up, but there's no 10:24.680 --> 10:32.680 guarantee that the shape of the bra cup will suit the shape of your breast. That's why when you 10:32.680 --> 10:40.600 draft your own bra pattern, you get in a guaranteed bra pattern, one that has a very 10:40.600 --> 10:49.000 good shape and one that has the correct cup shape for you. Most women have a favorite bra 10:49.000 --> 10:55.480 that fits them like a glove. It may be an old bra that's had it but they can't bear to throw it away 10:56.120 --> 11:03.640 or it could be a newer bra and it's that bra we use to cut a pattern from or to draft our own pattern. 11:03.640 --> 11:11.000 Obviously the better fitting that pattern bra is, the better the pattern is going to be. So choose 11:11.000 --> 11:17.800 the bra that fits best in the cups, the cups especially, because that cup fit is critical. 11:20.680 --> 11:27.320 It's very easy to alter the lengths of the straps of the bra and it's very easy to alter the shape 11:27.320 --> 11:35.560 and the size of the bra back, but the cup fit is critical and getting a perfect three-dimensional 11:35.560 --> 11:42.440 shape out of two or three pieces of flat fabric, that's much more demanding. 11:44.680 --> 11:51.080 If your pattern bra has minor problems with it, these can be corrected in the way you draft your 11:51.080 --> 11:58.360 pattern and in that way you can fine tune your own personal bra pattern so that it's perfect for your 11:58.360 --> 12:05.960 body. When you sew your own bras you can use wonderful delicious laces and fabrics, so let's 12:05.960 --> 12:13.880 have a look at some of those laces and fabrics. These little galoon laces they're called are often 12:13.880 --> 12:21.800 used along the tops of the cups, just there. They've got a deeply scalloped edge that goes down 12:21.800 --> 12:27.400 into the cup and a flatter edge that goes along the top of the cup, just like that. 12:28.840 --> 12:34.840 Obviously these narrow galoon laces are more suited to a smaller cut bra 12:35.960 --> 12:42.840 and the larger galoon laces with the deeper scallops are more suited to larger cut bras, 12:42.840 --> 12:46.680 where the lace isn't going to invade the shape of the cups too much. 12:49.400 --> 12:55.400 There's the narrow ones, there's some larger ones and you can also buy what's called double galoon laces. 12:55.960 --> 13:03.000 That's this one here and this one here. It's like having two layers of galoon laces all joined together 13:04.120 --> 13:09.720 and using a sharp pair of scissors you can simply cut down the midline like that. 13:09.720 --> 13:17.640 Around the scalloped edge so that you're separating the large band of lace into two halves 13:18.040 --> 13:25.000 and once you've got that done you can use one part of the lace for that cup 13:25.000 --> 13:28.600 and you use the mirror image of the pattern for the other cup. 13:30.840 --> 13:38.120 Here are a few more non-stretch laces. This one here I would describe as quite a bit of a 13:38.120 --> 13:47.160 open weave lace. In other words it's got lots of holes in it and that's similar to the sort of lace 13:47.160 --> 13:53.080 that some of the manufacturers are using in bras such as these. You can see that there's holes in 13:53.080 --> 14:01.000 the lace and those holes are very important because they allow the fabric to adjust itself 14:01.000 --> 14:10.520 and to move to just follow the beautiful rounded curve of the breast. Some of the laces are 14:10.520 --> 14:17.720 embroidered onto nylon net. Most laces are actually. They've got a synthetic net backing 14:17.720 --> 14:24.840 and they're embroidered onto it and if you look very very closely you can see the net in behind 14:24.840 --> 14:33.560 the flowers in this lace. But this one yet again is very very different. It is embroidered onto a 14:33.560 --> 14:43.880 nylon knit. It's knitted synthetic fabric that has one way give a little bit the other way but it does 14:43.880 --> 14:49.320 have a bit of movement in it and that bit of movement is important when you come to select 14:49.320 --> 14:59.160 your lace. If you were going to be copying a bra such as this it has a nylon knit lace here along 14:59.160 --> 15:07.560 the edge and so you would choose a similar lace when you constructed your bra. Just as we saw the 15:07.560 --> 15:15.080 non-stretch laces we can get single balloon lace and double balloon lace in stretch lace as well. 15:15.080 --> 15:23.640 These laces are embroidered or knitted with lycra within them or elastic in elastic substance. 15:24.680 --> 15:32.360 You can get the single balloon and the double balloon lace in the lycra laces. You can get a wide 15:33.160 --> 15:41.480 banded type of lace. All these laces generally have better stretch in one direction than the other. 15:41.480 --> 15:46.520 These ones, it's a lovely cotton one, these ones that have the beautiful scalloped edges 15:47.080 --> 15:52.920 are very very good for running along that neckline edge. It gives a very pretty effect indeed. 15:53.480 --> 16:00.520 So you can make very good use of these gorgeous edgings. And when you've got a very wide lace 16:00.520 --> 16:07.160 like this they're excellent because you can sometimes get a full upper cup or a full lower 16:07.160 --> 16:16.040 cup all dovetailed in out of this gorgeous lace. Both non-stretch and stretch laces can be bought 16:16.040 --> 16:22.280 on the roll by the meter. That's what is related by the term lace by the meter. It means you're 16:22.280 --> 16:30.280 buying the laces fabric. But with stretch laces you've got to be very careful because some laces 16:30.280 --> 16:35.200 stretch more than others. Have a look at these two samples. This is a very nice and 16:35.200 --> 16:39.720 beautiful pattern. Have a look at these two samples. This, they're both stretch laced but this stretch 16:39.720 --> 16:47.080 lace fully stretched only stretches to there. Whereas this one fully stretched goes right out to there. 16:48.760 --> 16:55.720 So stretch laces differ, they vary in terms of their quality, their thickness and their stretch 16:55.720 --> 17:02.200 properties. And all of this is important when you're selecting lace to use in the cups of your bra. 17:02.200 --> 17:06.440 After a while you'll get to know what sort of lace your pattern requires. 17:08.440 --> 17:15.560 One of the laces that manufacturers use a great deal is what we call bonded lace. And this is it 17:15.560 --> 17:24.440 here. It's a non-stretch lace that's been stuck to a backing fabric. And you can see here they've 17:24.440 --> 17:30.920 used a nylon knit as the backing fabric. And I've just peeled the two away from one another there 17:30.920 --> 17:37.240 to show you. And that's what happens when we wash our bras. They get a real pounding with the washing 17:37.240 --> 17:43.480 and wearing process. And when you've worn your bra and washed it a few times the backing actually 17:43.480 --> 17:49.640 lifts off the outer layer of lace. And looking at that bra you think, oh they've lined the cup with 17:49.640 --> 17:56.600 this nylon knit. They haven't. It was originally bonded or stuck together like that and with the 17:56.600 --> 18:01.880 washing and wearing it's separated off. But that doesn't matter because the bonding is still 18:01.880 --> 18:10.760 protecting and strengthening the lace cup, which is its function. Now that is a manufacturer's 18:10.760 --> 18:17.880 fabric, that bonded lace. And it's not readily obtainable to the home sewer. So we make our own. 18:18.760 --> 18:24.920 This as you can see is a transparent non-bonded lace. It's actually curtain lace 18:24.920 --> 18:29.560 that I got. It was so pretty and it was about half the price of the lace in the fabric shops, 18:30.280 --> 18:36.200 twice the meterage in the width of it. And I've picked it up. But its problem is it's a bit 18:36.200 --> 18:41.320 transparent after a few washes. And if I picked it up roughly I might put my fingernail through the 18:41.320 --> 18:47.160 lace. So to strengthen and protect that lace and make it more durable, I'm going to bond it 18:47.160 --> 18:57.720 bond it using a good quality iron-on interfacing. I'm going to place the lace face down, 18:57.720 --> 19:05.400 right side down. I'm going to place this bonding fabric against the back of the lace with the little 19:06.040 --> 19:12.440 plastic beads that melt and fuse the two together onto the back of the lace. And then I'm going to 19:12.440 --> 19:23.320 use a medium to hot iron and I'm going to iron the two together. We're smoothing it out very gently. 19:31.000 --> 19:40.520 And when I've done that, I've got bonded lace. The white is compatible to the ivory of the lace 19:40.520 --> 19:48.440 and it's a lovely bonding that makes the lace a lot stronger, a lot more durable and strong enough 19:48.440 --> 19:55.480 to hold up and support heavy breasts. In a similar way, if we've got a very brightly colored lace, 19:55.480 --> 20:03.480 we can iron a black iron-on interfacing onto the back of it to make a bonded lace. 20:03.480 --> 20:12.760 And there is the bonded lace, which again is much stronger and more durable than the original. 20:13.240 --> 20:18.760 It's very beautiful, but it tends to be quite vulnerable, this lace, without the bonding. 20:19.800 --> 20:25.400 A good quality iron-on interfacing can also be used to bond any woven fabric. 20:25.400 --> 20:32.760 Here's a silk check fabric and I've ironed a good quality interfacing onto the back. 20:32.760 --> 20:39.080 Now by good quality, I mean either a knitted or a woven nylon one, not one of the tissue types 20:39.080 --> 20:46.040 because these fluffy furry ones can disintegrate in the wash and bras get a real pounding in the 20:46.040 --> 20:53.160 washing and wearing process. So we want an interfacing that's not too thick, not too thin, 20:53.160 --> 20:57.880 but a really nice bearing process. So we want an interfacing that's going to last. 20:58.920 --> 21:04.040 Interfacing and using interfacing to bond fabrics has one drawback in that it's only 21:04.040 --> 21:09.960 readily obtainable in black and white, which is fine if you've got cream or a strong color. 21:09.960 --> 21:16.520 But what if you want another color behind your lace to enhance the color or create color contrasts, 21:16.520 --> 21:25.160 another process. Now this same lace can be used with a colored background. 21:27.160 --> 21:35.480 There it is against the pink and here I've made, well I've bonded this pink lace with a blue backing. 21:36.440 --> 21:42.440 They're still bonded laces and I've actually fused the lace to a single knit trico, which is 21:42.440 --> 21:51.400 petticoat fabric and I've used double-sided bonding fabric and this one's called Blyzerfix. 21:51.400 --> 21:57.000 It's just a very, very fine plastic webbing that melts when you iron it. 21:57.720 --> 22:04.440 I'm going to demonstrate now how to do that. Here's my pink lace that's going to be the top 22:04.440 --> 22:12.520 layer and I'm going to put it right side down onto the ironing board. I'm going to get my Blyzerfix 22:12.520 --> 22:18.040 and I'm going to put it, there it is, there I'm going to put it paper side up so that I'm going to 22:18.040 --> 22:27.320 melt the plastic onto the back of the lace and the sole plate of the iron is going to be against the 22:27.320 --> 22:38.280 paper. Again with a medium hot iron I'm going to wait a few moments for that to cool off 22:38.840 --> 22:43.560 and then I'm going to peel this paper backing off the back. 22:49.720 --> 22:56.840 There it is and if you can just see there the little plastic webbing is being melted onto the 22:56.840 --> 23:02.120 back of the lace I'm then going to place over the top of that my nylon trico. 23:05.800 --> 23:11.480 I'm going to use a pressing cloth over the top so that the sole plate of my iron doesn't touch the 23:11.480 --> 23:27.320 nylon. Get my iron and very, very gently just press like that. Not a lot of scrubbing. I'm using a 23:27.320 --> 23:36.360 steam iron to do this but you could use a dry iron if you wished. Take the pressing cloth away 23:36.360 --> 23:46.840 and what we have there is a pink lace with a pink backing using Blyzerfix to fuse the two 23:46.840 --> 23:52.920 and that's the other alternative to using the iron-on interfacing because this way we can get 23:52.920 --> 23:59.560 a coloured backing to our lace. If your favourite bra is a padded bra you might notice that the 23:59.560 --> 24:07.080 manufacturers use a wadding or a padding that has a nylon knit fused to the back of it. 24:07.640 --> 24:15.960 The two are together there and that nylon knit is against the skin and acts as a cut lining. 24:17.000 --> 24:23.400 Now we can't buy at the moment, we can't buy that sort of padding with that nylon knit fused to it 24:23.400 --> 24:33.240 but we can make our own using again a good quality iron-on interfacing. Simply by the particular 24:34.920 --> 24:42.120 thickness of wadding that you require place it on the ironing board, use your interfacing 24:42.120 --> 24:53.560 with the little plastic beads down onto it, it's going to melt onto the back of that wadding and iron. 24:53.560 --> 24:58.360 And in that way we're simply bonding the padding 25:00.680 --> 25:04.600 and the bonding or the interfacing is going to act as the lining in the cup. 25:05.320 --> 25:10.280 So instead of having to cut out an enormous amount of all these little layers we've got 25:10.280 --> 25:15.480 the outer cut fabric, we've got the padding and we've got a separate lining layer. We're doing 25:15.480 --> 25:22.200 away with that whole lining layer by ironing the lining onto the padding itself and the two 25:22.200 --> 25:29.560 are then treated as one, cut out as one and sewn together as one. It's much better to bond where 25:29.560 --> 25:36.920 possible because if you line and you don't treat your lining layer and your outer cut fabric as one 25:36.920 --> 25:43.560 there can be puckering and pulling occurring. So where possible I always interface or bond and 25:43.560 --> 25:49.960 that way I'm actually ironing the lining onto that outer cut fabric. And in this case with the 25:49.960 --> 25:58.360 padded bra I've ironed the lining onto the padding itself so that the padding and the interfacing, 25:58.360 --> 26:06.040 the two of them act as one layer of lining. It's very important to understand the stretch qualities 26:06.040 --> 26:14.600 of the cut fabric in your pattern bra because the cup relies on any give or stretch in its fabric 26:14.600 --> 26:21.080 to support the breast and provide a good fit. It's not only important to understand how much 26:21.080 --> 26:28.120 give or stretch there is in each cup section but also in what direction the main give or stretch 26:28.120 --> 26:34.440 runs. The direction of give or stretch affects the shape of the breast in the cup. 26:34.440 --> 26:41.080 Now when deciding what kind of cut fabric to use in our bras we should look for fabric that has 26:41.080 --> 26:49.400 the same kind of give or stretch as the cut fabric in our pattern bra. That way we can reproduce the 26:49.400 --> 26:57.320 manufactured bra successfully. What's the difference between give and stretch? Well 26:57.320 --> 27:05.320 this fabric here, this tricot, it's a double knit tricot, it has give simply because it's a knitted 27:05.320 --> 27:14.040 fabric similar to my jumper. It gives in one direction simply because it's a knit. Whereas 27:14.040 --> 27:22.360 this lycra, it's a nylon lycra, has multi-directional stretch. It's got rubber knitted into it 27:22.360 --> 27:29.560 and it bounces back beautifully in nearly all directions. Different fabrics can have different 27:29.560 --> 27:39.320 amounts of give or stretch. This bonded lace has low give, just a little bit, primarily in one 27:39.320 --> 27:48.280 direction. So that's a low give fabric. This double knit tricot has a medium give, one direction only, 27:48.280 --> 27:57.800 nothing in that direction. And this sheer nylon tricot has excellent give. You can see how much 27:57.800 --> 28:06.760 that's giving and again one direction only, only across like that. A fabric with stretch could have 28:06.760 --> 28:26.440 low stretch, not very much there, a medium stretch or a high stretch. Let's analyse some possible cut 28:26.440 --> 28:32.920 fabrics that you might find in your manufactured bra. This is our bonded lace that we saw before. 28:32.920 --> 28:40.440 It's one that the manufacturers use a lot and it has slight give in one direction and just a tiny 28:40.440 --> 28:45.880 bit, hardly any movement at all in the other direction. If you want to know how much give or 28:45.880 --> 28:52.760 stretch there is, don't get a tiny little bit, get a big bit and just see what it does. Give it a good 28:52.760 --> 28:58.200 yank and see how much yank there is in it. So as you can see with the bonded lace, slight give in 28:58.200 --> 29:08.280 one direction. Next, this is a double knit tricot. It's a very silky nylon knit and it has medium 29:08.280 --> 29:16.760 give in one direction only, nothing that way, medium give in that direction. But double knit 29:16.760 --> 29:22.280 tricot, it's just like a single knit tricot which is petticoat fabric, only it's thicker. 29:22.280 --> 29:27.560 This is actually sports bra cut fabric. It's a single knit nylon tricot 29:28.440 --> 29:35.880 fused or bonded to a very fine cotton single knit which goes against the skin. 29:37.400 --> 29:43.160 It has all the properties of the double knit tricot, medium one way give, nothing the other 29:43.160 --> 29:47.500 direction and it's an excellent fit for the 29:47.500 --> 29:53.920 medium one way give, nothing the other direction. And it's an excellent sort of fabric to use 29:53.920 --> 30:00.720 because that cotton lining against the skin or the bonding against the skin absorbs perspiration 30:00.720 --> 30:10.080 in your cup. Now there's no reason we can't buy a very fine single knit cotton fabric and using 30:10.080 --> 30:18.960 Vlyzerfix, bond or fuse it onto the back of a nylon tricot, having all of the give in the cotton 30:18.960 --> 30:28.000 knit running in the same direction as the give in the tricot outer layer. That's a bonded tricot. 30:28.960 --> 30:33.920 Then there's a cotton interlock or t-shirt fabric. This is actually an embroidered one. 30:33.920 --> 30:44.960 It has medium give in one direction only. This is an embossed single knit tricot. They sometimes 30:44.960 --> 30:52.960 call single knit tricot simplex. It has quite good give in one direction, nothing at all in the other 30:52.960 --> 30:58.960 direction. Actually the embossing or the printing on this fabric, I don't know if you can see it 30:58.960 --> 31:04.160 there, there's a slight pattern. It's actually cutting down the give in that, but it's still got 31:04.160 --> 31:12.160 good give. Your single knit tricot has got excellent give. This is what they make half slips out of. 31:12.720 --> 31:23.440 Good one way give, nothing the other direction. Now these are transparent nylon knits with the 31:23.440 --> 31:29.280 excellent give in one direction. One direction only. There's nothing in that other direction. 31:30.560 --> 31:35.120 Sometimes the manufacturers use these. There's a black one and here's a white one. They use that 31:35.120 --> 31:42.720 to line the stretch laces with, sometimes even the licorice, because the excellent give in these 31:42.720 --> 31:50.080 fabrics doesn't impede the stretch in the licorice and in the stretch laces. Then we're getting into 31:50.080 --> 31:57.840 our stretch now. Obviously stretchy is more stretchy than give. Now this is a stretch lace. 31:57.840 --> 32:04.080 It's a very, it's quite a lightweight one. Good stretch in that direction, hardly anything in that 32:04.080 --> 32:10.560 direction. Now this gorgeous fabric, it's one of my favorites actually, it's called mirror satin 32:10.560 --> 32:20.640 lycra, sometimes called stretch satin. It has one way stretch and it's excellent stretch. Look at that. 32:20.640 --> 32:26.960 And it's mirror sheen. It's just beautiful in brass. And you can see there's no stretch in that 32:26.960 --> 32:32.480 direction, beautiful stretch. So it's a one way stretch that fabric, a one way stretch lycra. 32:32.480 --> 32:40.720 Then you have the cotton lycra. Cotton lycra is mainly used in crop tops for young girls to do 32:40.720 --> 32:50.080 aerobics with. It's got good one way stretch, not too much in the other direction. The better the 32:50.080 --> 32:55.280 quality cotton lycra, the better the quality and the more multi-directional stretch it will have. 32:55.920 --> 33:02.240 Good stretch that direction, not too much in that direction. And the most stretchy of all are the 33:02.240 --> 33:12.160 nylon lycra's. Excellent multi-directional stretch. As you can see, there are many different types of 33:12.160 --> 33:18.560 cup fabrics, all with their own particular stretch qualities. And it's very important to be aware of 33:18.560 --> 33:26.880 this. If you have a bra pattern designed to have nylon lycra with all of its stretch in the cups 33:26.880 --> 33:34.480 and you use, for instance, a very rigid bonded lace, your cups are going to be much too small. 33:35.200 --> 33:41.920 By the same token, if you've got a bra pattern, a cup pattern that's meant to be made up using 33:41.920 --> 33:50.640 a rigid non-stretch bonded lace and you use one of the lycra's or one of the nearest satin lycra's 33:50.640 --> 33:58.720 in the cups, your cups are going to be far too big and sloppy and allow the breast to droop in them. 33:59.760 --> 34:05.680 In order to draft a pattern and sew a bra, we need to understand the structure of a bra. 34:06.800 --> 34:16.000 Obviously, a bra is made up of the bra cups and the rest of the bra, the bra back and the centerpiece. 34:16.000 --> 34:22.400 And this bra back and centerpiece here, I call the bra body. There's the cups and the bra body. 34:23.040 --> 34:30.720 The bra back is this part here. It's mostly made of spandex or power knit. 34:32.160 --> 34:41.040 There it is there. It's a low stretch fabric. And so that our bras don't cut us in half when we eat 34:41.040 --> 34:47.520 a full meal or heavens above, put on another kilo, we always have the greatest stretch going 34:47.520 --> 34:56.800 around the body. This is very important. Spandex is this satin knit fabric in this bra here. 35:00.560 --> 35:10.080 Whereas power knit has a more dull or a matte finish. Here it is here. Rather than being a net, 35:10.080 --> 35:17.040 it's a net and you can see the little holes in it. It has a low stretch as well. 35:18.320 --> 35:25.360 And women who live in parts of Australia where it gets really, really hot, say they prefer power knit. 35:26.080 --> 35:32.320 Because of its holes, they say it can breathe a lot better than the spandex. 35:32.320 --> 35:40.640 I myself prefer the satiny, lovely, silky knit feel of the spandex. It's very much an individual 35:40.640 --> 35:46.800 thing and neither one's better than the other. A lot of sports bras have their bra back made out of 35:46.800 --> 35:54.000 the power knit. And you can buy different weights and qualities of both fabrics. Some of your 35:54.000 --> 36:02.560 power knits and spandex is a very, very strong low stretch in quality, very heavy quality ones. 36:02.560 --> 36:10.480 And they will last a lot longer in a bra than one of the lightweight ones. Have a look. Here's a very 36:10.480 --> 36:18.880 firm, good quality, low stretch power knit. And here's a much lighter quality one. And you can see 36:18.880 --> 36:25.200 how much more stretch there is in the lighter quality power knit. By the same token, here's the 36:25.200 --> 36:33.600 very firm, good quality spandex that was in that pink bra there. And here's a lighter weight spandex, 36:34.560 --> 36:43.600 which is more like lycra. So you can see there's different weights and qualities in both types of 36:43.600 --> 36:52.720 fabric. In smaller cut bras, they sometimes, the manufacturers, use a cotton or a nylon lycra in 36:52.720 --> 36:59.040 the back of the bra or a stretch lace. Thinking maybe that greater support wasn't needed, but 36:59.040 --> 37:06.160 that's what happens. Bras really get a pounding in the washing and wearing process. So I always use 37:06.160 --> 37:12.720 a good quality spandex or power knit in the bras that I make if I go to all the trouble of making 37:12.720 --> 37:22.160 a bra. I want it to last. There's two main types of bra backs. There's this one that I call the T 37:22.160 --> 37:30.080 intersection style. And you can see here, the strap comes down and meets the bra back at an upside 37:30.080 --> 37:41.760 down T. That's the design of it. Whereas this one is a far more substantial style, where the strap 37:41.760 --> 37:49.200 comes down and runs down the edge here to the closure. And it's this style of bra back that 37:49.200 --> 37:58.960 I prefer to use where I need lots more support for large heavy breasts. Because of the work a bra does 37:58.960 --> 38:05.600 and the pounding it gets in the washing and wearing process and the perspiration, it's a good idea, 38:05.600 --> 38:12.400 especially if you've got larger breasts, if you self line the back of the bra using two layers 38:13.120 --> 38:19.840 of spandex or power knit instead of one. And you can see here, there's actually two layers of spandex. 38:20.960 --> 38:27.680 This will make your bras last longer as well as adding greater support. If you do self line the 38:27.680 --> 38:33.440 back, it'll firm up the whole of the back, which will make it tighter around the rib cage. So you'll 38:33.440 --> 38:38.640 have to extend the length of the pattern piece a few centimetres or so to allow for this. 38:39.840 --> 38:47.600 Always extend the bra back by lengthening it in the underarm region here. Never just add length to 38:47.600 --> 38:53.200 the centre back where the closure is, because what you'll be effectively doing is moving the back 38:53.200 --> 38:59.200 strap attachment points sideways out towards the arms. And then the straps can fall over the 38:59.200 --> 39:05.120 shoulders. The closer those back strap attachment points are to the centre back, the better. 39:05.920 --> 39:12.960 There are two main types of bra backs in their design. The first type is what I call the T 39:12.960 --> 39:19.120 intersection back, where the strap comes down and joins onto the bra back at right angles 39:19.760 --> 39:26.960 in an upside down T. And then there's this more substantial style, which is much stronger. 39:26.960 --> 39:33.040 Where the strap comes down, joins onto the bra back and comes right down here, leading to the 39:33.040 --> 39:38.800 hooks and eyes, the closure. And this is the style I prefer to make most of the bra. 39:43.280 --> 39:49.760 The centre piece, as its name suggests, is in the centre of the bra, the very heart of the bra 39:49.760 --> 39:58.320 in between the cups. And depending on the style of the bra, the centre piece can be in three shapes. 40:00.320 --> 40:04.640 Firstly, we've got the Y centre piece, which looks like an upside down Y. 40:06.160 --> 40:12.800 Secondly, there's an extended centre piece, where the centre piece goes right under the cups and 40:12.800 --> 40:19.920 right around to the side of the cups. And it's this style where we get all these lovely lace overhangs. 40:20.560 --> 40:26.240 And the third style, which is very different from the first two, is a small centre piece style. 40:27.040 --> 40:31.600 The centre piece is tiny and it doesn't go underneath or around the cups at all. It's 40:31.600 --> 40:39.120 just sitting right in between the cups. The centre piece is the substantial heart of the bra. 40:39.120 --> 40:44.480 It has to be strong and it has to be non-stretch in the horizontal direction. 40:46.000 --> 40:53.440 If you mistakenly make this centre piece out of very stretchy fabric, such as nylon lycra, 40:54.880 --> 41:00.480 when you put your bra on, the cups will stretch apart. And instead of the cups being at the front, 41:00.480 --> 41:08.800 they could end up in your armpits. So, to summarise, the centre piece is made of non-stretch 41:08.800 --> 41:16.160 fabric in the horizontal direction. And to make it even stronger, I always line it using a fine, 41:17.120 --> 41:21.360 often woven fabric that's not going to stretch or move at all. 41:22.240 --> 41:28.320 That's always non-stretch in the horizontal direction and it's always lined with a very fine, 41:28.320 --> 41:46.640 often woven fabric. There are various styles of cups. You've got your basic horizontal seam line 41:46.640 --> 41:54.480 on the cup. Then, to add greater shaping into the lower cup, they sometimes split the lower cup. 41:54.480 --> 42:03.360 So, there's a horizontal seam line with a split lower cup. Sometimes there's a diagonal seam line, 42:05.520 --> 42:14.800 a vertical seam line and then a multiple piece cup. Now, these three piece or more cups, 42:14.800 --> 42:21.920 they include some of the more complicated non-underwired styles. Some bras have moulded 42:21.920 --> 42:29.280 cups which have no seam lines. Here's one here. As you can see, there's no seam lines 42:30.400 --> 42:37.040 and the fabric is in the cup shape. Now, how they make this cup, in the factory, 42:37.040 --> 42:43.520 they stretch the fabric tightly over a breast mould and heat treat it so it stays in that position. 42:44.480 --> 42:51.600 Now, we home sewers can't imitate this process, but we can make exactly the same shaped cup using 42:51.600 --> 42:58.720 a seam line. I've found that with these cups, they best translate into one of the diagonal 42:58.720 --> 43:07.600 seam lined cups. Just before we draft our bra pattern, we need to know that a seam line is where 43:07.600 --> 43:15.760 two pieces of fabric meet, not necessarily where there's top stitching. Have a look on this bra. 43:15.760 --> 43:21.680 This line here is where the two pieces of fabric, the cup fabric and the spandex, 43:22.160 --> 43:29.040 this is where they meet along here. And this here is where there's top stitching. 43:31.040 --> 43:37.760 The top stitching simply shows us in which direction the raw edges of the seam line have 43:37.760 --> 43:44.080 been flipped. And in this case, because the seam lines here in the top stitching is on the outside 43:44.080 --> 43:51.680 of the seam line, all the raw edges have been flipped out of the cup and top stitched down. 44:03.200 --> 44:11.200 Now, I'm going to cut up this bra and draft its pattern. Cutting up a bra is a fast, easy, 44:11.200 --> 44:18.400 but above all, the most accurate way of drafting a bra pattern. Although I'm sacrificing this bra, 44:19.200 --> 44:27.680 I'm going to make many others identical to it, just as good, if not better. And so this bra is 44:27.680 --> 44:37.040 going to pay for itself many times over. To prepare the bra, trace over the seam lines and all around 44:37.040 --> 44:44.960 the outside edges with a felt pen, remembering that a seam line is where one piece of fabric meets 44:44.960 --> 44:53.440 another piece of fabric. These black lines will make it far easier to see all the bra sections 44:53.440 --> 45:01.120 through the pattern making fabric. If any outside edge of the bra is being gathered in or pulled a 45:01.120 --> 45:08.160 bit tight with that elastic, it's a good idea just to get a sharp pair of cutting scissors and nick 45:08.160 --> 45:31.280 that elastic through about one centimeter intervals, just to allow that whole piece to sit flat. 45:31.280 --> 45:40.480 I'm now pinning a piece of pattern making fabric, or do-sew, over this extended center piece, 45:40.480 --> 45:46.320 and I'm going to trace that. And because it's semi-transparent, I can see through it beautifully. 45:47.520 --> 45:55.200 I can easily see those black lines that I've marked. I'm going to get a sharp pencil and trace 45:55.200 --> 46:09.040 over those black lines. Now I've only traced half of this center piece, one side of it, 46:09.040 --> 46:15.920 and the center front fold line. And the reason why I've done that is so that I can fold the pattern 46:15.920 --> 46:23.680 along the center front fold line, like that, put it down, and trace the other side of it so that I 46:23.680 --> 46:32.000 get a symmetrical pattern piece. I've now got my completed center piece traced, and I'm going to 46:32.000 --> 46:42.000 now add seam allowances, one centimeter everywhere, except along the lower edge, which is where I add 46:42.000 --> 46:48.720 a seam allowance which is about one and a half centimeters wide. The seam allowance is equivalent 46:48.720 --> 46:55.680 to the width of the lower edge elastic. So one centimeter everywhere and one and a half centimeters 46:55.680 --> 47:13.520 around the bottom edge. I'm now going to trace the back of this bra all the way around the outside 47:13.520 --> 47:30.560 edge where that black line that I marked was. Here's the completed bra back, but it doesn't 47:30.560 --> 47:39.360 have any seam allowances yet. Here's the shape of the bra back that I've traced. The closure edge, 47:39.360 --> 47:48.720 up along the strap, top edge, side seam, lower edge. And here's the seam allowances that I've added. 47:49.520 --> 47:54.560 You'll notice that around the lower edge again, there's a one and a half centimeter seam allowance, 47:55.280 --> 48:02.160 which is the width of that lower edge elastic. There's a one centimeter seam allowance up the 48:02.160 --> 48:08.560 side seam and a one centimeter seam allowance across the top. But I haven't added any down this 48:08.560 --> 48:16.080 edge where the strap lies. And that's because there's no fabric along there that's folded under. 48:17.040 --> 48:22.960 Now just pretend that this here is the edge leading down to the closure. The strap's simply 48:22.960 --> 48:30.480 laid across along this edge and sewn like that. So I don't need any extra fabric to turn under. 48:30.480 --> 48:39.440 And along the closure edge, the flaps of the hook and eye tape simply wrap around that raw edge. 48:40.080 --> 48:48.000 So again, I don't need any extra fabric along there either. And this is the completed pattern piece. 48:50.160 --> 48:58.800 Here's the extended centerpiece pattern piece. And here's the bra back. And when I overlay, 48:58.800 --> 49:05.760 the side seam on the side seam line of each, you can see how the bra back joins on. There's a side 49:05.760 --> 49:14.800 seam and joins onto the extended centerpiece. It's now time to take an underwire out of the bra. 49:15.440 --> 49:19.920 And to do that, I've just snicked the casing with a sharp pair of scissors there. And I'm going to 49:19.920 --> 49:27.440 slip this wire out of the casing. Now take note of which colored tip is the right one. 49:27.440 --> 49:34.320 And which colored tip goes to the center of the bra? Because underwires are rarely symmetrical. 49:35.440 --> 49:40.880 And so we have to know which end of the wire is at the center of the bra and which colored tip 49:40.880 --> 49:46.960 goes towards the side of the bra. There's no arbitrary rules to follow here. And if we're 49:46.960 --> 49:52.720 not recycling these original wires in the bra, we're going to need to match these wires up as 49:52.720 --> 50:00.320 closely as possible in shape and size to ones we can buy in the shop. So that's the shape and the 50:00.320 --> 50:06.320 size of the underwire. Underwires come in all different shapes and sizes. It's no good saying 50:06.320 --> 50:12.640 I want a 14C wire because there's no standardization of size throughout the bra making industry. 50:13.280 --> 50:19.200 I sell half a dozen to a dozen 14C wires. And they're all very different in size and shape. 50:19.200 --> 50:27.040 So if your wire, there it is out of the bra, take it to a fabric shop and try and match it up with 50:27.040 --> 50:32.560 some of the bra wires they've got there. And if you can't get a good match, like there's my good 50:32.560 --> 50:39.360 match that I've got. But if you can't get a good match, do a tracing of your underwire. There we 50:39.360 --> 50:47.520 are. And fax it to me. And I'll see if I can get one that's almost identical in size and shape to 50:47.520 --> 50:54.240 it. Now when you're matching your wire up, choose one that doesn't come too high, especially at this 50:54.240 --> 51:03.360 underarm area here. You want one that comes no higher than that point there, about a centimeter 51:03.360 --> 51:10.240 short or underneath that finished off armhole edge. If it comes any higher up, you're not going to 51:10.240 --> 51:16.000 have enough fabric to turn that elastic and raw edge underneath there and sew it down. 51:16.000 --> 51:22.960 Because machines don't like sewing through metal wires, unfortunately. We're just about to cut the 51:22.960 --> 51:29.760 cup out of the bra body now. But before we do, we need to label the different cup sections. The cups 51:29.760 --> 51:36.320 have to go in the bra the right way. And so that we don't get all the jigsaw puzzle pieces mixed up 51:36.320 --> 51:42.960 and the wrong way around and upside down. What I do on the different cup sections, I put a C to 51:42.960 --> 51:52.960 denote the center of the bra pieces and S to denote the side. And especially on this fish shaped or 51:52.960 --> 52:02.000 elliptical shaped lower cup piece, I put a T to denote the top of it. It's now time to cut one of 52:02.000 --> 52:08.480 the cups out of the bra body along what I call the wire line seam. This dark seam line here that I've 52:08.480 --> 52:17.520 already marked. So I cut that cup out of the bra body. I only cut one cup out simply because I don't 52:17.520 --> 52:22.880 need the other cup. I'm making my pattern from this cup here and I've left this other cup here 52:22.880 --> 52:29.840 intact so that I can see how the pieces all fit together just in case I need something to refer to 52:29.840 --> 52:36.400 later on. For cutting your cup out of a bra and for all the trimming involved in bra making, 52:36.400 --> 52:43.520 a good sharp pair of cutting out scissors is an excellent thing to have. These are duckbilled scissors 52:43.520 --> 52:50.800 and they are wonderful for bra making. Very sharp, very accurate. Now that I've cut the cup out and 52:50.800 --> 52:57.040 I've cut it along this horizontal seam, you can see that that upper cup joined to the lower cup 52:57.040 --> 53:08.960 all the way along there. There it is. But I should have already knitted this armhole edge here 53:08.960 --> 53:17.040 with my scissors because that's where that elastic is gathering that edge in to stop gaping at the 53:17.040 --> 53:24.400 side of the upper cup there. Now while I've got my scissors you can see here this upper cup isn't 53:24.400 --> 53:31.200 sitting flat, it's curling up. Now that's an indication that an easing stitch was put along 53:31.200 --> 53:41.520 there because that edge there was longer than this one here. So when I join the lower cup to the upper 53:41.520 --> 53:48.240 cup I'm going to have to ease that longer edge in to sew it onto the shorter edge along the bottom 53:48.240 --> 53:55.040 of the upper cup. But to get that flat for my pattern I'm just going to sneak through that top 53:55.040 --> 54:02.960 stitching there that's pulling it tight and you can see how that's making it sit a lot, lot flatter. 54:03.840 --> 54:10.720 There it is, it's sitting flat. Now the next thing I'm going to do I'm going to iron these pattern 54:10.720 --> 54:17.760 pieces flat so they sit lovely and flat and then I'm going to trace them. Now this is the lower 54:17.760 --> 54:24.640 cup piece and this is it here traced. You'll notice I've all the time putting the C for the centre, 54:24.640 --> 54:32.160 the S for the side and the T for the top and there's the lower cup there and this is it here 54:32.160 --> 54:36.800 with its seam allowances one centimetre all the way around added to it. 54:36.800 --> 54:45.840 These markings can be used to indicate the centre and the side and that's the top there and similarly 54:45.840 --> 54:53.840 I can do, I can trace this top cup pattern piece here, here we are. 54:56.320 --> 55:03.200 Just like that, there it is the centre of the side that's the armhole edge and the neckline edge 55:03.200 --> 55:10.320 and here we are with the one centimetre seam allowances added all the way around 55:10.320 --> 55:15.120 all except for up here where the upper cup itself goes through the ring. 55:16.080 --> 55:20.240 Now that our pattern pieces are completed there's only one thing left to do. 55:20.240 --> 55:28.560 We've got to analyse the degree of stretch or give in the cup pattern pieces. Now in this lower cup here 55:28.560 --> 55:37.840 it's actually made of bonded single knit trico. Normally you'd have a good lot of give in this lower 55:37.840 --> 55:43.600 cup but the bonding has actually substantially reduced that give and that's all the give we've 55:43.600 --> 55:49.600 got left and there's absolutely nothing across there, no give at all and in the upper cup the 55:49.600 --> 55:56.400 slight give runs diagonally and you can see on the cup pieces and on the pattern pieces 55:56.400 --> 56:03.600 here I've put arrows and I've labelled them slight give or give and that's exactly the same way 56:03.600 --> 56:10.880 that we have to align the give in the upper cup and the lower cup. Now instead of using a bonded 56:10.880 --> 56:19.040 single knit trico I've actually chosen to use Mirasat and Lycra which has one way stretch and 56:19.040 --> 56:26.880 I have cancelled out the stretch, the significant stretch in this Mirasat and there it is. I've 56:26.880 --> 56:33.280 cancelled that out by ironing a good quality interfacing onto the back of it so instead of 56:33.280 --> 56:40.800 that amount of stretch I've got only a little bit of give left, just the same as in the original 56:40.800 --> 56:48.880 lower cup and in the upper cup there it is there, I've only got a tiny bit of give left running 56:48.880 --> 56:54.880 diagonally like that so you can see how I've imitated the stretch or the give in those cup 56:54.880 --> 57:02.080 pieces in the pieces that I'm going to be using to make the bra up. Now we'll put the cup pieces 57:02.080 --> 57:07.760 out of the way, we've got them all worked out, here's the back that I've cut out, I've used a 57:07.760 --> 57:13.680 good quality spandex and I've got the main stretch running around the body, always, always have it 57:13.680 --> 57:23.040 running around the body. Here's the extended centre piece, I'm going to make it out of a bonded 57:23.040 --> 57:30.080 single knit trico, again I've ironed the interfacing onto the back of the trico to stabilise it and 57:30.080 --> 57:37.680 I'm going to be lining it with a fine satin-y, just a satin line, and I'm going to be lining it 57:37.680 --> 57:45.600 with a fine satin lining. Here's the other side of the side back just there and that's all ready to go. 57:57.600 --> 58:03.520 Before I sew this bra together I'm going to make sure that I've got a stretch needle, a medium-sized 58:03.520 --> 58:09.920 stretch needle in my machine. Stretch needles are Teflon coated ballpoint needles and they're the 58:09.920 --> 58:16.000 best, by far the best for bra making because they handle the elastic and the spandex type fabrics 58:16.000 --> 58:23.920 really well. Polyester thread is terrific, it doesn't rot because it's not a natural fibre and 58:23.920 --> 58:29.440 I'm going to be using black thread for all of this sewing so that you can really clearly see my stitches. 58:29.440 --> 58:36.960 Now because I've used 1cm seam allowances all throughout this bra except for that lower edge, 58:36.960 --> 58:43.920 you've got to sew with accurate 1cm seam allowances, otherwise the cut won't fit. 58:44.880 --> 58:51.280 Now if you're not sure what a 1cm seam allowance is, get your cut pattern piece and place it 58:51.280 --> 59:00.560 underneath the presser foot, lower your needle into that seam line, there it is there, and lower that 59:00.560 --> 59:07.600 presser foot and it'll just show you where what will be the edge of the fabric will be in relationship 59:07.600 --> 59:14.720 to that edge of the presser foot or the markings on the bed of your machine. On my machine here 59:15.360 --> 59:20.720 there actually is a 1cm mark and you can see that it's running right along the end of the 59:20.720 --> 59:30.320 edge of that pattern piece. So with that worked out, I'm now going to sew the first part of the bra 59:30.320 --> 59:35.440 which is to line the centre piece. This is my extended centre piece and it's lining and I'm 59:35.440 --> 59:46.160 going to place those two right sides together, pin them just along where that seam line's going to go 59:46.160 --> 59:54.160 and I'm going to sew a straight stitch so I'm seaming them across in between the cuts. 01:00:01.680 --> 01:00:07.840 Using my duckbill scissors, I'm now going to grade these seam allowances so that I'm going to reduce 01:00:07.840 --> 01:00:18.880 the bulk. I'm going to turn it out the right way and I'm going to top stitch across there 01:00:19.600 --> 01:00:25.360 just to hold it nice and securely. So here's my line of top stitching. 01:00:25.360 --> 01:00:34.720 Again, a centimeter in from the raw edge, from that same edge. 01:00:38.480 --> 01:00:45.600 And the centre piece is lined. I'm going to pin that centre piece all together now so it's nice and flat. 01:00:45.600 --> 01:00:53.360 I've now lined the centre piece and the centre piece and its lining are all pinned together nice and flat. 01:00:58.240 --> 01:01:05.760 I'm now pinning the bra back to the centre piece right sides together along that side seam. 01:01:05.760 --> 01:01:12.000 I'm now sewing it with a small straight stitch a centimeter in from the raw edges 01:01:14.880 --> 01:01:21.760 and I'm trimming off the raw edges that belong to the centre piece. 01:01:23.680 --> 01:01:31.920 They're the ones that are going to be enclosed and I'm going to pin them together. 01:01:31.920 --> 01:01:39.200 They're the ones that are going to be enclosed when I fold both raw edges towards the front of the bra. 01:01:39.200 --> 01:01:59.280 Using a small stitch, I'm now pin stitching those raw edges down. 01:01:59.280 --> 01:02:14.880 And now I'm top stitching them a centimeter or so in from the seam line. 01:02:14.880 --> 01:02:28.960 I'm going to use a walking foot in order to stay stitched around the wire line edge. 01:02:29.680 --> 01:02:35.600 And the reason why I'm putting this on is because it will feed the upper and the lower layers of 01:02:35.600 --> 01:02:39.600 fabric through together so I won't have any puckering or pulling occurring. 01:02:39.600 --> 01:02:47.120 So that I don't have to use all of these pins to hold the centre piece and its lining together, 01:02:47.120 --> 01:03:10.560 I'm going to stay stitch around this wire line edge using a zigzag, using the walking foot as well. 01:03:47.120 --> 01:04:01.520 And then I can take all of those pins out. 01:04:06.080 --> 01:04:12.000 So now we've lined the centre piece and seamed it onto the bra back. 01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:19.760 I stay stitched the wire line raw edges to hold the centre piece lining and the centre piece fabric 01:04:19.760 --> 01:04:25.280 together so I don't have to use all those pins. And the centre piece and the bra back together makes 01:04:25.280 --> 01:04:34.000 the completed bra body. So now it's onto the cups. Because this edge here was slightly longer 01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:39.920 than this lower edge of the upper cup, and because they're going to get seamed together, 01:04:39.920 --> 01:04:50.080 I've got to run an easing stitch around here just to grab this whole edge in so that its length 01:04:50.080 --> 01:05:13.520 matches the length of the bat. 01:05:20.080 --> 01:05:39.440 With this easing stitch completed, I can now join this lower cup onto its matching upper cup. 01:05:40.080 --> 01:05:46.880 I'm going to turn the upper cup down on top of the lower cup, and I'm going to 01:05:46.880 --> 01:05:54.160 pin all the way around the central cup seam, right sides together. 01:05:58.400 --> 01:06:05.760 With these cup pieces pinned together, I can now sew this central horizontal cup seam using a small 01:06:05.760 --> 01:06:12.640 straight stitch. I prefer to use a small straight stitch rather than a medium or a long one 01:06:12.640 --> 01:06:18.400 because there's a lot of stress placed on cup seams and they have to be very strong. 01:06:20.720 --> 01:06:27.360 I'm going to part these raw edges, pulling the upper cup apart from the lower cup so there's 01:06:27.360 --> 01:06:33.040 a lovely crisp seam line on the right side of the garment. And I'm going to top stitch 01:06:33.040 --> 01:06:39.440 close to the seam line. The raw edges can then be trimmed back hard. 01:06:39.440 --> 01:06:45.840 To trim them safely back, with the least risk of nicking the cup itself, turn up the raw edge that 01:06:45.840 --> 01:06:54.160 is closest to you and fold everything else down hard. That way you can't accidentally cut into 01:06:54.160 --> 01:07:01.040 the fabric behind because that's folded right down and you can clearly see everything at the front. 01:07:02.080 --> 01:07:05.040 We now have two completed assembled cups. 01:07:05.040 --> 01:07:12.560 We have a left breast cup and a right breast cup. And the next step is to finish off each 01:07:12.560 --> 01:07:21.040 cup's neckline edge. To do this, we've got a few choices we can make. We can either use lace, 01:07:22.400 --> 01:07:30.320 or we can use narrow-solid elastic, or we can combine the lace and the narrow-solid elastic. 01:07:30.320 --> 01:07:36.880 Narrow-solid elastic is used to finish off the other edges of a bra, and either narrow or wider 01:07:36.880 --> 01:07:41.280 -solid elastic is used to finish off the lower ribcage edge of a bra. 01:07:43.600 --> 01:07:47.760 This scholar-padded bra is made of a single piece of fabric, 01:07:47.760 --> 01:07:57.460 and the 01:07:57.460 --> 01:08:05.000 elastic is called plush lingerie elastic. This is called plush lingerie elastic because it has a 01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:12.280 beautiful, firmy surface that ends up against the skin. The scallops end up peeking over the edge. 01:08:14.680 --> 01:08:19.960 Whether narrow or wide, this scalloped elastic is put on in the same way. 01:08:19.960 --> 01:08:27.480 And I'm going to demonstrate the method on this sample. Place the fabric right side up. 01:08:28.760 --> 01:08:37.480 Place the elastic along the edge to be finished off, furry side up, with the scallops facing away 01:08:37.480 --> 01:08:47.880 from the raw edge. Using a medium zigzag sewn at the base of the scallops, sew the elastic unstretched 01:08:47.880 --> 01:09:00.360 along the edge. Turn the sample over. Trim back the fabric to the zigzag stitching so that it 01:09:00.360 --> 01:09:11.640 doesn't protrude. Turn the elastic to the underside of the fabric. And using a large three-step zigzag 01:09:11.640 --> 01:09:19.400 or wave stitch, sew the elastic again, making the line of stitching sit on the flat edge of the 01:09:19.400 --> 01:09:27.320 elastic. If this second line of stitching bears over into the middle of the elastic, 01:09:27.320 --> 01:09:35.720 the elastic has an opportunity to roll over, which isn't good. This second line of stitching 01:09:35.720 --> 01:09:42.760 should anchor the elastic to the back of the fabric. When deciding on the stitch width 01:09:43.320 --> 01:09:48.840 for the wave stitch or three-step zigzag, I choose the maximum stitch width. 01:09:50.440 --> 01:09:55.800 Concerning stitch length, on my Bernina, I choose a fairly small stitch length, 01:09:57.640 --> 01:10:05.240 about a one, but your machine might be different. If your stitches are too far apart, 01:10:05.240 --> 01:10:11.880 the stitching will tend to break. But if your stitches are too close together, 01:10:11.880 --> 01:10:18.680 stitch drag or thread drag occurs. Every time the needle penetrates the fabric, 01:10:18.680 --> 01:10:24.760 the threads interlock. And because there are too many stitches per inch, the thicknesses of all 01:10:24.760 --> 01:10:28.920 that thread builds up and stretches the edge, all slack and out of shape. 01:10:28.920 --> 01:10:33.960 Look at a manufactured bra to determine what form of stitch to copy. 01:10:35.960 --> 01:10:42.040 To finish off the neckline edge using narrow-scollet elastic, do it exactly the same way as I did on the 01:10:42.040 --> 01:10:50.520 sample. Place the elastic furry side up, with the scallops facing away from the neckline edge, 01:10:51.320 --> 01:10:55.960 and do a medium zigzag right next to the scallops, all the way down. 01:10:55.960 --> 01:11:02.520 Next, turn it over and trim that raw edge back to the scallop, the zigzag stitching. 01:11:05.560 --> 01:11:13.000 Then turn the elastic to the back of the cup and finish it off with a three-step zigzag. 01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:20.040 To finish off the neckline edge with lace alone, we need to miter the lace. 01:11:20.040 --> 01:11:27.240 So that it can go along the neckline edge and up into where the ring is positioned. 01:11:28.360 --> 01:11:37.400 Place the lace along the cup, making its top edge run along the finished edge of the cup, 01:11:37.400 --> 01:11:45.960 not the raw edge. Pin it in that position and sew the top edge of the cup. 01:11:45.960 --> 01:11:53.800 Pin it in that position and sew a small zigzag all around the bottom of the lace, that deep scallop 01:11:53.800 --> 01:12:05.640 edge, all the way along. Once that's done, the fabric can be very carefully trimmed away from behind 01:12:05.640 --> 01:12:16.120 the lace. But I leave a little extra fabric just at the top where the lace goes up and goes through 01:12:16.120 --> 01:12:22.520 the ring. And this strengthens the whole area of the cup so that we haven't totally compromised 01:12:22.520 --> 01:12:26.280 the strength of the cup by cutting the fabric away from behind the lace. 01:12:26.280 --> 01:12:34.120 To finish off the neckline edge with lace and elastic, simply lay the lace right across the cup. 01:12:34.120 --> 01:12:38.920 It doesn't have to curve, it doesn't have to do anything. We're just simply going to sew the lace 01:12:38.920 --> 01:12:44.360 to the cup using a small zigzag all around the bottom edge and the top edge. 01:12:46.120 --> 01:12:51.400 And then we're going to treat the cup, the lace, and the fabric as one, as if the lace wasn't even 01:12:51.400 --> 01:12:57.240 there. And finish off that neckline edge with narrow scalloped elastic just the same way as we 01:12:57.240 --> 01:13:04.200 did before. We lay the narrow scalloped elastic all the way along the cup neckline edge, 01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:13.560 a medium zigzag next to the scallops, turn the cup over, trim the raw fabric edge back to the 01:13:13.560 --> 01:13:27.320 stitching line, and three-step zigzag the cup. We've got two complete cups and we've finished off 01:13:27.320 --> 01:13:46.600 the neckline edges. And we can insert these cups into the bra body, but they've got to go correctly 01:13:46.600 --> 01:13:52.120 in so that the right breast cup goes into its correct cup space and so does the other one, 01:13:52.120 --> 01:13:59.640 not the other way around. That would be a disaster. Pin one cup at a time into the bra body, 01:14:00.680 --> 01:14:08.120 right sides together. Start pinning from the center, making sure that the finished top edge 01:14:08.120 --> 01:14:15.160 of the centerpiece exactly meets the finished top edge, the neckline edge of the cup. 01:14:15.160 --> 01:14:23.400 You really have to fit the cup right into the curve. Make sure the raw edges stay level 01:14:23.400 --> 01:14:27.000 and that you're pinning right on the one centimeter seam line. 01:14:29.800 --> 01:14:37.080 When the first cup is pinned into the bra body, sew it in using a one centimeter seam allowance. 01:14:37.080 --> 01:14:46.200 As you sew this cup in, make sure that the bra body underneath is flat. Otherwise puckering can occur. 01:14:51.320 --> 01:14:55.640 Once one cup is seamed into the bra body, pin the other cup in. 01:14:57.560 --> 01:15:00.360 And then sew that in exactly the same way. 01:15:00.360 --> 01:15:09.160 The next step is to sew the wide skull of the mastic unstretched all around the lower edge of the bra. 01:15:31.000 --> 01:15:35.160 This lower edge elastic can be pinned all the way around the lower edge unstretched 01:15:36.200 --> 01:15:41.960 in just the same way as I showed you before. There it is there. 01:15:44.280 --> 01:15:49.000 Remember how we used the wider seam allowance? Well, underneath the cups here, 01:15:50.840 --> 01:15:55.000 there should be just enough room to sew the elastic on 01:15:55.000 --> 01:16:02.600 so that it can be turned over and topstitched down before that wireline seam there is hit. 01:16:03.320 --> 01:16:10.440 There's our wireline raw edges. So it just tucks in there with a little bit of space left 01:16:10.440 --> 01:16:27.240 underneath the cups. And you sew that on as to normal. 01:17:10.440 --> 01:17:17.240 Once the cups have been sewn into the bra and this lower edge elastic has been sewn on, 01:17:17.880 --> 01:17:24.440 it's time to put on the underwire casing. Now underwire casing performs some very important 01:17:24.440 --> 01:17:31.640 functions. Firstly, it covers up these awful wireline seam raw edges around here. 01:17:31.640 --> 01:17:38.680 Secondly, it sits in the crease between the breast and the rib cage and absorbs perspiration, 01:17:39.000 --> 01:17:45.800 making the bra more comfortable to wear. And thirdly, in an underwire bra, it contains the 01:17:45.800 --> 01:17:53.640 underwire. And because it's such wonderful stuff, I even use it in under, in non-underwire bras. 01:17:53.640 --> 01:18:00.680 I use the underwire casing to cover up any of these raw edges from the seams. When the casing 01:18:00.680 --> 01:18:08.680 is initially sewn to the bra, it is sewn to the wireline raw edges alone. It's not sewn to the 01:18:08.680 --> 01:18:19.320 cup, nor is it sewn to the bra body. It is sewn to these raw edges. It's not sewn to the cup, 01:18:19.320 --> 01:18:28.200 it's sewn to these raw edges. It can be sewn to this cup side of the raw edges if the raw edges 01:18:28.200 --> 01:18:35.720 are to be flipped out of the cup, or it can be sewn to the other side of the raw edges if the edges 01:18:35.720 --> 01:18:43.480 are to be flipped into the cup. The only style of bra requiring the raw edges to be flipped into 01:18:43.480 --> 01:18:50.440 is the small centrepiece bra. In this style, there's no bra body underneath the cup to flip 01:18:50.440 --> 01:18:56.440 the raw edges out onto and topstitch them down. So they have to be flipped into the cup to be 01:18:56.440 --> 01:19:03.480 topstitched. And you can see that here. There's the topstitching and there's the seam line. 01:19:05.320 --> 01:19:11.400 The way these raw edges are flipped is important, because the wire is contained in the casing, 01:19:11.400 --> 01:19:17.320 which is sewn to them. If the raw edges are meant to be flipped out of the cup, 01:19:18.040 --> 01:19:25.800 the casing and the wire will end up sitting here. If I sew the casing to the incorrect side of the 01:19:25.800 --> 01:19:31.880 raw edges and flip them into the cup, the wire will end up sitting inside the seam and the cup 01:19:31.880 --> 01:19:39.800 will be too small. In this bra, the casing and the raw edges are to be flipped out of the cup. 01:19:39.800 --> 01:19:46.600 The casing has to be sewn to the cup side or inside surface of the raw edges, so that when 01:19:46.600 --> 01:19:53.560 the raw edges are turned out of the cup, the casing covers them up. If I mistakenly sew the 01:19:53.560 --> 01:19:59.160 casing to the other side of the raw edges, it won't cover them up when they're turned out of the cup. 01:19:59.160 --> 01:20:08.200 I'm going to demonstrate underwire casing application using this sample. 01:20:11.880 --> 01:20:17.480 I'm going to pretend that this little seam here I've sewed is the wire line seam. 01:20:18.680 --> 01:20:26.520 That this is the inside surface of the cup. The yellow part here is the inside surface of the bra 01:20:26.520 --> 01:20:36.600 body and these raw edges here are the wire line seam raw edges. The casing has to be sewn to this 01:20:36.600 --> 01:20:48.840 side of the raw edges. So I'm going to isolate these raw edges by folding the bra body back against the cup. 01:20:48.840 --> 01:21:06.840 Lay the casing along the seam allowance. With this stitching here on the casing, directly over the seam line. 01:21:06.840 --> 01:21:17.880 And sew along this line, directly over the wire line seam. 01:21:26.120 --> 01:21:31.320 Now you can see that the line of stitching I've sewed is directly on top of that wire line seam. 01:21:31.320 --> 01:21:43.000 Trim back the raw edges quite close to the stitching. Fold the bra body out flat and pull it away from the cup. 01:21:44.600 --> 01:21:51.960 Fold the casing right out of the cup and top stitch along the other line of stitching on the casing itself. 01:21:53.880 --> 01:21:59.880 When top stitching, make sure that you pull the cup and the bra body away from each other so that 01:21:59.880 --> 01:22:07.320 there is a lovely crisp seam line on the right side of the garment. To give a really professional finish, 01:22:07.880 --> 01:22:15.400 I insert a sharp universal needle into my sewing machine and sew a line of pin stitching, 01:22:15.400 --> 01:22:29.960 a pin width away from the seam line. I'm now going to sew the casing to the bra. 01:22:45.400 --> 01:22:51.960 Pull the wire in. 01:22:51.960 --> 01:22:54.740 Push both faster than the 좋아요 andмотря out of the 01:22:54.740 --> 01:23:01.760 See another one and this one. 01:23:01.760 --> 01:23:16.860 I've just used thiska oil for a second. 01:23:16.860 --> 01:23:32.300 You'll notice that under the cups, the casing is folded down and topstitched over this lower 01:23:32.300 --> 01:23:34.700 edge elastic. 01:23:34.700 --> 01:23:40.880 And this stops any flipping up or folding under of that lower edge elastic when the 01:23:40.880 --> 01:23:44.300 bra is worn. 01:23:44.300 --> 01:23:50.100 Once the casing is topstitched down and the pinstitch in the zone, the centre ends of 01:23:50.100 --> 01:23:53.700 the casing can be sealed. 01:23:53.700 --> 01:24:00.020 At this stage, a sharp needle is still in the machine and it's still needed. 01:24:00.020 --> 01:24:06.100 With a tiny straight stitch, sew back and forth across the very top of the centre piece, 01:24:06.100 --> 01:24:10.740 using the low gear on your machine if you've got one. 01:24:10.740 --> 01:24:17.140 Because of the thicknesses here, needle breakages can occur, so you may wish to hand wheel your 01:24:17.140 --> 01:24:21.380 machine over all these thicknesses. 01:24:21.380 --> 01:24:26.420 And if your machine doesn't handle sewing through thicknesses well, you may wish to 01:24:26.420 --> 01:24:33.460 sew across the casing alone, just slightly off the edge. 01:24:33.460 --> 01:24:39.780 If wires poking through are a real problem for you, a dab of washable waterproof glue 01:24:39.780 --> 01:24:49.140 can be squeezed just down into the central channel of the casing before you sew across. 01:24:49.140 --> 01:24:55.380 The glue combined with the stitching makes a stronger bond. 01:24:55.380 --> 01:25:00.700 Trim back the wire casing flush with the top of the centre piece. 01:25:00.700 --> 01:25:08.140 The wires can now be inserted into the central channel of the casing under the arm. 01:25:08.140 --> 01:25:14.020 Because wires more often poke through the casing on the inside of the bra, rather than 01:25:14.020 --> 01:25:20.020 on the outside, and because of the thickness of the outer fabric, I always insert the wire 01:25:20.020 --> 01:25:25.460 into the channel so that there are a few more little layers of the casing between the wire 01:25:25.460 --> 01:25:32.860 tip and the skin when the bra is worn, adding extra cushioning. 01:25:32.860 --> 01:25:38.740 To keep the wire stationary inside the casing, it's a good idea to sew across the casing 01:25:38.740 --> 01:25:44.900 above the side tip with a tiny straight stitch. 01:25:44.900 --> 01:25:52.660 Trim the casing end back at the side so that it's one centimetre short of the fabric raw 01:25:52.660 --> 01:25:53.660 edge. 01:25:53.660 --> 01:25:59.220 This is so that the underarm edge elastic will be able to fold neatly over the end of 01:25:59.220 --> 01:26:01.260 the casing. 01:26:01.260 --> 01:26:09.220 Without us having to fold the casing over itself, creating needle breaking bulk. 01:26:09.220 --> 01:26:16.420 Once the wires are in the underwire casing, it's now time to finish off this total arm 01:26:16.420 --> 01:26:21.260 hole edge with narrow scalloped elastic. 01:26:21.260 --> 01:26:28.820 This style of bra back is a regular style, and we've simply got to sew this narrow scalloped 01:26:28.820 --> 01:26:38.500 elastic from the top point of the cup to where the elastic meets the strapping. 01:26:38.500 --> 01:26:45.220 If the style of your bra back is a T-intersection style, the narrow scalloped elastic will have 01:26:45.220 --> 01:26:52.820 to be sewn in its correct position so that where the elastic meets the centre back closure 01:26:52.820 --> 01:27:01.980 edge, that vertical height will match exactly to the height of the hook-eye tab. 01:27:01.980 --> 01:27:08.060 All hook-eye tabs differ in the spacing between the hooks and the eyes. 01:27:08.060 --> 01:27:13.100 Some are very close together and others are further apart. 01:27:13.100 --> 01:27:19.340 The raw fabric edge can now be trimmed back. 01:27:19.340 --> 01:27:33.340 The three-step zigzag topstitching completed, and the rings can be attached. 01:27:33.340 --> 01:27:39.460 If you can't buy rings or slides in the correct colour for your garment, consider spraying 01:27:39.460 --> 01:27:45.620 white ones or black ones with a quick drying enamel spray paint. 01:27:45.620 --> 01:27:52.100 I'm not going to stretch the elastic at all along the top of the spandex bra back, but 01:27:52.100 --> 01:27:58.620 I'm just going to stretch the elastic slightly around the arm hole edge of the cup, just 01:27:58.620 --> 01:28:14.700 to gather it in slightly to stop gaping in this position. 01:28:14.700 --> 01:28:18.660 The straps can now be assembled. 01:28:18.660 --> 01:28:28.820 Wrap the end of each strap around the central lug of its slide and stitch securely. 01:28:28.820 --> 01:28:36.740 I like to begin with a zigzag and straight stitch then through the middle of the zigzags. 01:28:36.740 --> 01:28:39.380 It's nice and secure. 01:28:39.380 --> 01:28:45.780 With the front of the bra facing you, thread the other end of each strap face downwards 01:28:45.780 --> 01:28:53.140 through the ring towards you, under the front bar of the slide, up and over the central 01:28:53.140 --> 01:28:58.940 lug and down under the back bar. 01:28:58.940 --> 01:29:05.340 The strap can then be sewn to the bra back using a three-step zigzag along its lower 01:29:05.340 --> 01:29:11.660 edge, being careful to position the strap at the centre back edge with the height of 01:29:11.660 --> 01:29:16.380 the hook I tab in mind. 01:29:16.380 --> 01:29:21.140 Just to finish off this back section, I'm going to trim the strap off, cutting it to 01:29:21.140 --> 01:29:22.140 the right angle. 01:29:22.140 --> 01:29:28.100 I'm going to turn it over and I'm going to trim off all this excess fabric back to the 01:29:28.100 --> 01:29:29.100 line of stitching. 01:29:29.100 --> 01:29:52.100 You have a very neat result. 01:29:52.100 --> 01:29:59.780 The I tab is sewn to the right-hand side of a bra when the bra is facing you. 01:29:59.780 --> 01:30:07.900 The flaps of the tab simply part and wrap around the raw edge of the fabric. 01:30:07.900 --> 01:30:15.540 And then you do a single line of straight stitching through all the layers. 01:30:15.540 --> 01:30:21.940 The cut edges of the tab across its top and bottom can be secured with a line of straight 01:30:21.940 --> 01:30:28.060 stitching right on the edge of the tab. 01:30:28.060 --> 01:30:32.700 The hook tab is sewn on in two lines of stitching. 01:30:32.700 --> 01:30:37.340 It too wraps around the raw edge of the fabric. 01:30:37.340 --> 01:30:41.300 Trying to sew through all three thicknesses as well as wrapping the tab around the end 01:30:41.300 --> 01:30:43.780 is too much to do all at once. 01:30:43.780 --> 01:30:51.860 So I turn the bra upside down, place the tab on the right side of the fabric with the hook's 01:30:51.860 --> 01:30:58.500 facing away from the garment and the middle line of stitching on the tab just past the 01:30:58.500 --> 01:31:01.260 raw end of the fabric. 01:31:01.260 --> 01:31:05.100 I straight stitch down the end of the tab. 01:31:05.100 --> 01:31:13.700 Next, turn the garment the wrong way up with the inside facing you. 01:31:13.700 --> 01:31:20.100 Wrap the tab around the raw end, shift your needle position on your machine to the far 01:31:20.100 --> 01:31:23.460 right or put a zipper foot on. 01:31:23.460 --> 01:31:31.620 Put a line of straight stitching down the other edge of the tab. 01:31:31.620 --> 01:31:37.820 Using this method at no time should the hooks be facing downwards so that they can get caught 01:31:37.820 --> 01:31:42.300 or meshed up in the feed dog teeth. 01:31:42.300 --> 01:31:54.380 We've now drafted a pattern from a manufactured bra and produced a replica of that bra. 01:31:54.380 --> 01:31:59.740 Making your own bras is an exciting venture to embark upon. 01:31:59.740 --> 01:32:05.380 Bra making is a wonderfully creative and rewarding hobby. 01:32:05.380 --> 01:32:12.160 Once you've made your first bra, you can fine tune your pattern and hone your sewing skills 01:32:12.160 --> 01:32:17.380 and techniques and before long you will have a drawer full of lovely creations. 01:32:17.380 --> 01:32:25.660 If you encounter any problems, either refer to my book or contact me personally on the 01:32:25.660 --> 01:32:43.500 following numbers. 01:32:43.500 --> 01:33:00.300 Good luck. 01:33:30.300 --> 01:33:32.300 Thanks for watching!